BLOCKADE
Secretary.
First Sea Lord.
A.C.L.
C.O.S. and others.
A standing Admiralty Committee will be formed under the presidency of the Additional Civil Lord, to be called ‘The Restriction of Enemies’ Supplies Committee,’ composed as follows:—
One representative of the Trade Division of the War Staff.
One representative of the Foreign Office.
One representative of the Board of Trade.
Mr. Alan Burgoyne, M.P.
Mr. C. Money, M.P.
The duties of this Committee will be to examine and watch continually all means or routes by which supplies of food or raw material may reach Germany and Austria; to report weekly all importations or exportations to and from these countries coming to their knowledge; and to recommend by what methods, financial, commercial, diplomatic, and military, they may be hampered, restricted, and, if possible, stopped. Measures should, in the first instance, be recommended to secure full and accurate information from day to day of all vessels unloading cargoes which may ultimately reach Germany or Austria at neutral ports, and the port of Rotterdam especially, as well as the possibility of supplies coming through a northern part of Sweden or from Sweden itself across the Baltic, or through Norway and Denmark. Holland must be the subject of the closest study, it being clearly impossible for the British Government to allow the neutral port of Rotterdam to serve as a base of supplies to the enemy. Trustworthy agents in Holland must be obtained or dispatched thither for this purpose. Any possible importation overland through Italy or up the Adriatic must be included in the survey.
Funds will be forthcoming for any special action required.
The Committee should hold its first meeting on Friday, the 14th, using a committee room at the Admiralty.
A.C.L. to nominate his own Secretary, and make all further arrangements to carry this minute into effect.
W. S. C.
August 13, 1914.